As of 15 Sep 06

WORLD

Years Ago
13.7 B
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30 MYFN
5 BYFN
6 BYFN /

Event

Our Universe forms (One of many?) - Big bang / expansion. Now 20 – 40 B light years wide. (1 light year = 9.46 x 1015 m ~ 10 MB m). Universe = < 1% ordinary luminous matter, 4% ordinary dark matter, 23% exotic dark matter, and 73% dark energy. The last 2 are unknown on earth, i.e. 96% of the matter/energy in the universe is as yet unknown to man! (Something is not right here.)
Electrons (Dia = 10-18 m), protons (10-15 m), and neutrons (10-15 m), ie protons and neutrons are a thousand times bigger than electrons.
Nuclei
Light atoms – hydrogen, helium, and some lithium. (Dia = 0.1 – 0.5 nm (10-9 m). The orbital diameter of the electrons is almost a million times bigger than a proton or neutron, ie, there is a lot of nothing in an atom.
Stars. ~200 B in the Milky Way, ~2.5 x 1022 (25 kBB) in the universe.
Galaxies start to form. (~125 B in the universe.)
Supernovas fill out the periodic table.

OurGalaxy, the Milky Way, forms. Dia = 100 kLY = 9.5 x 1020 m; Thickness of arm = 1 kLY. Distance to center of universe = 1.76E14 LY?? in the direction of Pisces; vr = 1.28E4 x c ???. Nearest galaxy = Andromeda @ 2.9 E6 LY and closing.

OurSolar System, the Sun, forms (Dia = 1.2 x 1013 m = 0.00127 LY). [Sun is 26 k LY to center of our Galaxy which is in the direction of Sagittarius; orbital speed = 220 km/s; period = 225 MY.] Sun dia = 1.5E9 m. Nearest star = Alpha Centuri @ 4.2 LY.
Earthstarts to form. Every atom on earth and very atom in our bodies was created billions of years ago. We are made of old stardust!
Moon forms @ collision of planetoid Orpheus with earth. Orbits CCW 1 rev per 27.3217 days; Repeats phases every 29.5306 days. Spins 1/day. Dia = 3.476E6 m = ¼ earth dia; distance to earth = 3.84E8 m = 1.3 light sec.
Earth (1.2756 x 107 m dia ~ sun dia /100) “finishes” accretion. Heavy metals sink to core. Orbits Sun CCW in 365.24 days; orbit tilt = “0” deg; orbit vt = 2.98 E4 m/s = 66,664 mph; equator vt = 464 m/s = 1,038 mph. Axis tilt = 23.4 deg. Axis precesses 1 rev per 26 k years. Earth to Sun = 1.5 x 1011 m = 1 AU = 1.58 E-5 LY = 8 light minutes.
Zircons formed = oldest rocks today.
First rain.
First life elements form in sea.
First life = bacteria. (0.2 – 2.0 μm dia ~ 2000 atoms wide) All plants and animals now living on earth are related to one another, literally, through a common ancestor – bacteria.
Heavy and long bombardment by space rocks. @ moon evidence.
Bacteria divide, cloning selves in 20 min.
Photosynthesis
Cyanobacteria, blue-green microbes, oxygenate the atmosphere.

One-celled organisms (10 – 30 μm)

Continents start to form. (3.4 – 2.6 BYA)
Continental plates start moving. Now 9 major plates and several minor ones.
Continents end formation period.
Modern geology starts.
Microbial aerobic respiration commences.
Huronian glaciation – 1 of 5 "Great Ice Ages" = all ocean surfaces frozen. Snowball earth. -50°C during and +50°C (122°F) after - the Freeze and Fry cycle.
Ozone layer forms to block UV
Protoctists form = First established beings, organisms.
Mitochondia (respire air) form and join protoctists.
Bacteria move inland. Bacteria induce mineral precipitation – gold etc.
Late Proterozoic (or Neoproterozoic) glaciation – 2 of 5. Snowball earth. Ice ages will occur every 200 MY and last for 1 – 10 MY, until 1.8 MYA.
First multicelled animals arise. Fungi too.
Mass extinction; 160 km dia. asteroid, Acranan, Australia; 53 MM tons of TNT. There have been 5 mass extinctions since 600 MYA, almost all caused by external events.
Cambrian "explosion" – Life proliferates and evolves.
Fish – 1st vertebrates. Bilateral symmetry, heads, mouths, jaws.
C/O (Cambrian/Ordovician) mass extinction. 70% of species die.
Algae move ashore to form plant world.
Ordovician/Sillurian glaciation – 3 of 5. Frozen oceans. Mass extinction of marine animals – 80% of species die.
Lichen
Vascular plants.
Tetrapods on shore.

Amphibians

Divonian/Mississipian mass extinction – 60% of all species die.
Reptiles (later = dinosaurs, birds.)
Trees - Carboniferous (coal) Period starts, runs 70M years.
Permian/Carboniferous glaciation – 4 of 5. Mass extinctions. Up to 95%.
All land masses joined as Pangia
Permian/Triassic mass extinction. “The great dieing”. 90% of marine species; 80% terrestrial. Caused by global warming triggered by a big meteor that hit Siberia. Life recovery took 4 to 5 MY. Latest info says that a huge space rock hit Wilkes Land Antarctica. 300 Mi wide crater. Chicxulub rock was 6 miles wide; Wilkes was 30 miles wide. Australia broke off from the Gondwana super continent to form its own continent.
Mammals.
Triassic/Jurassic mass extinction. Asteroid, Manicouagan, Quebec, Canada. 100 km dia crater, 33 MM tons of TNT. 80% of species die.
Dinosaurs
Birds
Flowers
Cretaceous/Tertiary "Dino" mass extinction 70%; Asteroid, 6 miles long, Chicxulub, Mexico, 100 MM tons of TNT. Mammalian species start to multiply.
Warm climate. Tropics up to central US. Global temperatures now start to slowly drop. (Since 4 BYA to 0 MYA temps haven’t varied more than 15 to 20 deg C ie 55 to 70 deg F except for ice ages.
Primates (Monkeys)
Fruit
Whales go back to sea.
Ice age
Asteroid, 100 km dia crater, 33 MM tons, Popigai, Siberia
Hominoids (Apes) came out of the trees and split from the Old World monkeys. Apes (tailless and have opposable thumbs) = gibbons, orangutans (90%), gorillas (90%), and chimpanzees (98.4%). (Genes like ours).
Big mountains form
Ice age.
Hominids (protoman) split off from the apes.
(See "Man" for the rest of the man story.)
Asteroid? 18 km dia crater in El’Gygytgya, Russia. If asteroid, would be equivalent to 13 MM tons of TNT = nuclear winter = extinctions.
Ice age.
Homo habalis (handy man) – first man. To 1.5 MYA. Start of stone age.
Pleistocene glaciation – 5 of 5 "Great Ice Ages". Since 1.8 MYA, earth has seen > 20 periods of glaciation, one every 21 or 41 or 100 Kyrs a la Milankovitch and his earth orbit variation theory. (Global biorhythm?) Earths precession cycle = 26 (21?) ky; eccentricity cycle = 100 ky; axis tilt cycle = 41 ky. 22.5 < Tilt <24 degrees.
Tertiary/Quaternary mass extinction. 20%
Homo erectus To 200 KYA
Last magnetic field reversal.
Donau I glacial, 600-585 k Europe
Tiglian interglacial, 585-550 k Europe
Donau II glacial, 550-540k Europe
Waalian interglacial, 540-470 k Europe
Archaic Homo sapiens (thinking man). To 150 KYA. Some call him H. heidelbergensi. In Europe.
Nebraskan/Gunz glacial, 470-330 k USA.
Aftonian/Cromer interglacial, 330-300 k North America.
Kansan/Elster glacial, 300-230 USA.
Yarmouth/Holstein interglacial, 230-180 k USA.
Homo sapiens sapiens – Modern Homo sapiens. The cause of numerous species extinctions, man is now working on the world's 6th mass extinction. Only this time man will still be here, insuring that there will not be a rebound of the animal kingdom as has happened in the past.
Illinoian/Saale glacial, 180-130 USA
Sangamon/Eem interglacial, 130-70 k
Toba volcano in Sumatra erupts. Biggest bang on earth ever. Enormous ash cloud. Protracted (nuclear) winter. Mass extinctions. Only 3 to 10 k humans left on earth.
Wisconsinan/Weichsel (or Vistula) glacial period, 70-15 KYA
Meteor Crater in Arizona. 1st crater on earth to be identified as being caused by a space rock. Rock was 150' dia = 20 Mt TNT.
Coldest period of last ice age. Then, start of global warming again, ie a short, warm interglacial period. Climate can change completely in as little as 3 to 30 years!!!
A few scientists say the next ice age is due any time now. But it may be stalled (or maybe accelerated!) by the atmospheric-CO2-causedgreenhouse effect. When the fossil fuels are gone, we may again have an ice age and possibly another mass extinction, unless another meteor gets us first. When the glaciers do come there will be a massive influx of people into the tropics. Buy now. Babylon may yet again be a garden spot.
The African plate will collide with the European plate to squeeze the Mediterranean Sea out of existence and to push up a new mountain range. (Rome may rise again.)
Dieing sun (red giant to white dwarf) expands to envelope the earth*. We are toast.
Milky Way galaxy collides with the Andromeda galaxy. Black holes merge. Sayonara.
* Life on earth, and every other planet in the universe, is temporary!

Recent near misses of asteroids:

23 Mar 89 – 0.5 km rock missed by 690,000 km. If hit, would have impacted with 10 kM tons on TNT.

1991 to 1994 – 4 asteroids came closer to earth than the moon (~ ½ the distance to the moon). Earth-Moon dist = 385,000 km = 30 times the earths diameter.

2029 – A 1.6 kM tons (of TNT) rock (# 2004MN4) was thought to have a 1 in 44 chance of hitting us, but later estimates said that it would miss earth.

Causes of extinctions: Solar system rocks, galactic rocks, outer space rocks, glaciations, comets, volcanos, climate changes, loss of magnetic field, loss of ozone, over population, deforestation, loss of ionosphere, loss of atmosphere, loss of water (like Mars).